Want two scoops of greens with that lunch?
By Matt Sedensky
Associated Press
Not long ago, Elvira Valeira's lunch order may have shocked traditionalists.
But more and more, the Hawaiian plate lunch — lots of meat, two big scoops of rice and a mound of macaroni salad — is being ordered as Valeira did, with tossed salad in place of carbohydrate-loaded sides.
Even here in Hawai'i, where starchy foods like poi have been a staple for centuries and rice is served for breakfast, the popularity of low-carb diets including Atkins, South Beach and the Zone is becoming big business. It's changing lunch orders, transforming store shelves and adding items to menus.
At Puuwainani's Plate Lunches in Kaka'ako, where Valeiro picked up her lunch, owner Marcos Rebibos said fewer than half of his 130 daily customers opt for a plate lunch with its traditional white rice and mac salad sides.
"It's not the majority anymore," he said.
Down the road at Restaurant Row's Wiki Wiki Drive In, worker Winnie Supnet offered a similar statistic — the number of people choosing "all greens" has steadily grown.
Across the Islands, the popularity of diets heavy on meat, eggs and cheese, and easy on the bread, cereal and Twinkies, has fueled changes in local businesses.
It's easy to understand, considering low-carb products and services are expected to generate $30 billion this year nationwide, double last year's figure, according to LowCarbiz, a weekly online trade newsletter.
Times Supermarkets has introduced a low-carb section at two of its stores and has plans for a third, and retailers from Long's Drugs to GNC are giving up shelf space for everything from Atkins maple syrup to Breyers Carb-Smart ice cream to Russell Stover's line of low-carb chocolates.
Love's Bakery has high hopes for the low-carb whole-grain bread it plans to introduce this year, and local favorite LL& Drive-Inn already is reaping benefits from the introduction of its Hawaiian Atkins Plate three months ago.
L&L president Eddie Flores said thousands of the lunches have been sold at the chain's more than 85 outlets, mostly in Hawai'i and on the West Coast, many to new customers. He's even considering adding an Atkins breakfast menu item.
At the Diamond Head Market deli, a 15-day Atkins lunch program that goes for $120 has been a hit with customers, with 60 to 75 people on the plan at a time. Still, the low-carb offerings haven't dampened sales of Diamond Head Market's tempting sweets, from apple crisp to biscotti.
"Whatever the Atkins craze is out there, it hasn't cut into our other business," said Jan Toma, a store employee.
A a new low-carb store, Paradise Foods in Kailua, co-owner Dennis Muth said he plans to extend hours to meet customers' demands for 1,700 various products.
Muth's wife, Hedy, has been on the Atkins diet for eight months. The couple decided to open the store because of the trouble she had finding products. Dennis Muth says he thinks the diet trend is here to stay.
"We've been living by the low-fat mantra for 20 years now, and obviously that hasn't worked," he said. "That's why I think a lot of the medical community is coming around to recognize what Dr. Robert Atkins had to say."
Even Mauna Loa is getting in on the act for its macadamia nuts, which Atkins, who championed a low-carb diet for decades, called a "dieter's best friend." The company's "Loa-Carb" campaign has targeted both customers and the media with a message that its nuts are a healthy, Atkins-friendly snack.
With millions of people following a low-carb diet, there seems no end to businesses' plans to capitalize on the trend. Tex-Mex chain Don Pablo's has rolled out a low-carb margarita. Ohio-based Donatos Pizzeria has announced plans for low-carb pizza at its 182 outlets. Even New Mexico tortilla manufacturers predict hot sales when low-carbohydrate tortillas soon hit the market.
Sales are one thing, but devotion to the diet is another.
Back at Puuwainani's, Valeira's decision to pass on the rice and macaroni salad was one she admits she's unable to make every day. Low-carb diets are tough to follow in an Island culture where some foods seem impossible to live without. "The moment you can start eating solid food, they're giving you rice," she said.
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